* 11:42 am - I suppose it’s the least the governor can do for his newest (and perhaps most effective) human shield…
Now that Roland Burris has been turned away from the Senate, where will he hang his hat?
Since Burris has not been sworn in as a senator, he doesn’t have an office in the Russell, Dirksen or the Hart Senate Office Buildings that house the nation’s 100 senators and support staff.
But will have a Capitol Hill view if he chooses.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has offered Burris space in the state’s Washington office, which rests at the foot of Capitol Hill.
CNN has updated its post…
Update: A Burris associate tells CNN that Burris rejected Blagojevich’s offer to use his office space.
* 12:08 pm - Not a lot of news from hizzoner, but I’ll post it anyway…
But in a clear reference to the federal corruption charges and impeachment proceedings against the governor, [Mayor Daley] added that Burris “has a cloud over him because of the uncertainty in Springfield.”
And…
Daley also said he has no preference in the coming election to select a new congressman as a replacement for Rahm Emanuel, the new White House chief of staff. The mayor said he doubted that he would endorse anyone in the special election for the 5th Congressional District.
* 12:15 pm - Roland Burris will testify to the House impeachment committee Thursday at 3 o’clock. So, it appears our Senator-Designate is coming home soon.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) broke with her party’s leadership Tuesday in calling for Roland Burris to be seated in the Senate once his paperwork is signed by the Illinois secretary of state.
[Sigh] Didn’t Feinstein sign the letter to Blagojevich warning him that whomever he appointed wouldn’t be seated?
And Republicans are taking full advantage of a bad situation…
Congressional Black Caucus members and Feinstein – along with some senior Senate Republicans — are siding with Burris’ fight to be seated.
* 12:44 pm - Not that anyone cares what the rest of the country thinks, but here you go…
A majority of Americans say Roland Burris should be blocked from taking a U.S. Senate seat and Illinois should hold a special election to fill the vacancy he was appointed to fill, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. […]
Interest in the dispute is high — six in 10 are following it closely — and support for Burris is scant. By nearly 2-1, 51% to 27%, those surveyed say the Senate should block him from taking his seat. A similar majority, 52%, say Illinois should hold a special election as soon as possible to fill the office.
* 12:47 pm - I’ll post this as soon as I get a copy…
In a formal affidavit, Roland Burris says he had only one limited conversation with Governor Rod Blagojevich before accepting his appointment as a U.S. senator. […]
Burris says he was approached by a Blagojevich attorney about taking the Senate post on Friday, December 26. Two days later, he accepted the appointment in a phone call with the governor.
* 12:56 pm - Statement from the governor…
“The people of Illinois are entitled to be represented by two senators in the United States Senate. As governor, it is my duty and obligation to appoint a senator when there is a vacancy. I have done that by appointing Roland Burris, a good and decent man with a long history of public service in Illinois. Any allegations against me should not be held against him and especially not the people of Illinois,” Governor Rod R. Blagojevich said.
* 12:59 pm - To read Roland Burris’ affidavit, click here.
* 1:03 pm - According to the Burris affidavit, he was approached by Sam Adam, Jr., the governor’s criminal lawyer. After speaking with some lawyers, including former prosecutors, I think that’s gonna open up a huge can of worms on attorney/client privilege for both Adam and Blagojevich.
* 1:12 pm - 5th Congressional District Democratic candidate Tom Geoghegan has been getting a lot of favorable write-ups on the Left side of Blogistan, and he now has a recommended diary at DKos.
* 1:20 pm - US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke about Burris on the floor today…
And Burris almost walked into traffic this morning…
In case you missed it, here’s Burris’ presser…
* 1:46 pm - From the Belleville News-Democrat’s editorial page…
Poor Burris, he’s so impressed with his own self-importance he can’t see that he’s just a distraction from fellow Democrat Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s trouble with the law.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be out of a job by Feb. 4. That’s according to a tentative timeline taking shape among some state lawmakers, who are moving toward impeaching the scandal-plagued chief executive in the coming days.
A special House panel is expected to recommend later this week that the 52-year-old Democrat be impeached. If the full House follows suit, the Senate could start its trial of Blagojevich on Jan. 26.
I told subscribers about the Senate start date the other day. I figured two weeks, but they’re apparently gonna run this thing on a compressed schedule…
State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, said lawmakers have been advised that the impeachment trial in the Senate could take at least nine days, minus one Sunday, putting Feb. 4 in the cross hairs as Blagojevich’s possible final day in office if the Senate finds him guilty.
’’If it’s any longer than that, it won’t be much,’’ said Rutherford, a member of a special Senate committee drafting rules for the Senate impeachment trial.
Be patient. That’s just four weeks from now.
The Senate committee met in Chicago for two hours on Monday to decide how it will carry out the trial. It will also meet Friday in hopes of having all the rules determined by the time the new legislature is sworn in on Jan. 14.
They’ll start taking pleadings and motions on the 14th, maybe the 15th. This thing is gonna wrap up quick.
* Also, this is a pretty good projection for the House’s schedule…
Rep. Jim Durkin of Western Springs, the ranking Republican on the impeachment committee, said Monday that he thinks “we can do both (the committee and House votes) on Friday,”
Plus…
The revised schedule also means the committee should be able to hear from Roland Burris, selected last week by Blagojevich to fill Illinois’ vacant U.S. Senate seat. The committee had subpoenaed Burris to appear Wednesday to explain the circumstances surrounding his selection. Blagojevich was arrested in federal corruption charges for allegedly trying to sell the seat to the highest bidder.
Burris told the committee he can’t appear until Thursday. The new schedule should accommodate that.
That could be interesting, particularly if they get into some of the stuff mentioned in this post.
* Related…
* What might be on the secret Blagojevich tapes - Conversations involved a bill that diverted Illinois casino revenue to the horse racing industry
* A commenter posted a memo about this ethics training session on the blog yesterday. I meant to frontpage it, but forgot. The Tribune had a piece about the subject today…
As legislators weigh impeaching Gov. Rod Blagojevich and federal prosecutors prepare to indict him on corruption charges, his acting chief of staff and a deputy governor will be keynote speakers Wednesday at an “Ethics in the Workplace” seminar for some 200 state employees.
The governor’s acting chief of staff, Clayton Harris III, is new to his post; his predecessor, John Harris, was arrested the same day as the governor and resigned Dec. 12. Deputy Gov. Dean Martinez started his job a month ago.
But is it wrong for any members of the Blagojevich administration to instruct state workers on ethics?
“That’s a real tough question, but … I don’t see the irony really,” said Rev. Tim Fiala, executive director of University of Illinois at Chicago’s Integritas Institute, an ethics forum.
Ha! The irony is that the director of the Integritas Institute didn’t catch the irony in the memo. Hilarious. Only in Illinois, baby. Only in Illinois.
Don’t miss the fantastic speakers and great round table discussion! You will receive continuing education credits and you will pay no registration fee. The seminar will be simulcast throughout the state so you will be able to watch it at a location near you!
This will be Illinois’ first multi-agency, simulcast ethics seminar.
View the 2009 brochure including agenda.
Featured Speakers and Round Table Participants:
Dean Martinez, Deputy Governor
Clayton K. Harris III, Deputy Chief of Staff for the Governor
J. Dennis Hastert, former United States Speaker of the House of Representatives
Anne M. Burke, Illinois Supreme Court Justice of the First District
Rodger A. Heaton, United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois
James A. Wright, - Illinois Executive Inspector General
Sydney R. Roberts, - First Deputy Illinois Executive Inspector General/Chief Operating Officer
James M. Brennan, Illinois Ethics Commission Member and Director of Compliance for Reyes Holdings, L.L.C.
Michelle T. McVicker, Special Agent in Charge USDOT-OIG Chicago Office
John (Jack) B. Tieder, Senior Partner in the law firm of Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald, L.L.P.
James E. Wolfe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Knight Engineers & Architects.
* Speaking of ethics, Abner Mikva makes some excellent points today…
A half century ago, Paul Simon, Anthony “Tony” Scariano and I introduced an ethics bill in the state legislature. We ignored the callous boast of Paul “Shoebox” Powell—then the Illinois speaker of the House who was found after his death in 1970 to have had more than three-quarters of a million dollars in cash stuffed in a shoebox and other containers in his hotel room in Springfield—that “You can’t pass an ethics law I can’t beat.” It didn’t matter: We couldn’t get the bill out of committee.
On Jan. 1, a strong ethics bill took effect in Illinois and that’s good. But I’m beginning to wonder whether Powell had a point. […]
Unfortunately, even if all the ethics laws that have been proposed over the years had been in place, they at best would have added an extra count to the criminal indictments of a Blagojevich or a Ryan. Keeping such disasters from happening is much harder than just passing ethics laws.
But he adds…
We had better become more thoughtful about our partners: A nice hairdo or a firm handshake ought not be enough.
The media is just as culpable here. The Tribune, for instance, portrayed Glenn Poshard as the unethical bad guy in 1998 because he bent some of his self-imposed contribution limits. Rod Blagojevich was able to get away with smearing both Jim Ryan and Judy Baar Topinka with his dinky little charges.
Yes, most political reporters did their best to expose Blagojevich in 2006, and it wasn’t enough. Voters deserve the lion’s share of the blame.
But, in the future, we all need to look at the big picture.
* Mikva also came out forcefully for contribution limits, a sentiment echoed by the SJ-R editorial board…
Federal elections have shown that campaign contribution limits are no panacea. Outside interest groups circumvent them. Candidates enlist fundraisers to package together groups of people willing to contribute the maximum together, a practice known as bundling. Those who bundle probably get their phone calls returned pretty quickly when they have an issue that a senator, congressman or the president has to weigh in on.
Nevertheless, limiting campaign contributors to a dollar amount might stem the pigs-at-the-trough campaign finance mentality that has flourished under Blagojevich and is central to his alleged crimes.
Congress has proved Paul Powell right time and time again. they’ll always find a way around reforms, but I’m wondering if you think limits will do any good.
* 10:24 am - Attention national media: In addition to the stories below about Roland Burris’ not-so-great past, the Daily Herald has dived into the vault and come up with a few other stories. I’ve reformatted the piece a bit, so go read the whole thing…
* Feb. 2, 1992: Burris borrowed $28,200 from his campaign fund - A spokesman for Burris said the Chicago Democrat used the money to increase his state pension benefits.
* Feb. 4, 1985: Burris firm linked to probe of school - Illinois Comptroller Roland W. Burris, who paid $442,508 in disputed state scholarship funds to a Chicago college, is affiliated with a law firm representing an official of the same college in a federal grand jury investigation.
* March 8 (probably 1985): Burris intervened in pal’s conviction - llinois Comptroller Roland Burris urged a federal judge last month to place a Chicago pharmacist, who contributed to Burris’ campaigns, on probation after the man was convicted of defrauding Medicaid out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
* 10:01 am - Burris’ attorney, Tim Wright, is now speaking.
Wright says his client has “several options,” including going to court or continuing to negotiate with the Senate.
Roland Burris entered the Secretary of the Senate’s office on the 3rd floor of the Capitol to present his credentials. The media was gathered around the corner - several abreast stretching down the hallway.
Terrance Gainer, the sergeant at arms who would be charged with blocking Burris at the Senate chambers door if necessary, escorted him into the office. The secretary’s office is one floor above the entrance to the Senate chambers.
Leaders have been negotiating what Burris will do today - and there was some word that Burris might accept his rejection in the secretary’s office. Guards initially had told they were to treat Burris as they would a senator, easing his path through the Capitol entrance, but were later told to take him through security as any visitor.
“We’ve been back and fourth four times,'’ a Democratic aide said of the choreography of the morning.
I’ll add more to this post in a bit, but I wanted to get it online as quickly as possible considering the breaking news value. Live updates will be at the top. Additional content from existing stories will be posted below.
During Roland Burris’ first full fiscal year as Illinois attorney general, more than half of the money his office awarded for outside legal work went to campaign contributors, according to a book published by Illinois Issues magazine and the Springfield State Journal-Register.
In FY 1992, Burris’ office issued roughly $4 million in outside legal contracts to individuals and law firms, according to the book, Illinois For Sale, which was published in 1997. More than $2.25 million of that amount went to contributors to Burris’ campaign or to the main Democratic fundraising committee.
During the last three years, two Englewood community organizations founded by Rep. Bobby Rush in his role as church pastor have received more than $2 million in state funding from Gov. Blagojevich’s administration.
I point it out because I’ve been thinking it might help explain why Rush is so gung-ho to help Blagojevich put Roland Burris in the U.S. Senate.
Did Roland Burris’s business partner, Fred Lebed, have anything to do with Patti Blagojevich landing a full-time job as development director of the Chicago Christian Industrial League?
Lebed, who served on Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s transition team, also serves on CCIL’s Board of Directors.
The question was raised on Sunday night by political pundit Bruce Dumont on his XM Satellite radio show “Beyond the Beltway.” I was a guest, along with writer Salim Muwakkil and Judy Baar Topinka, the former state treasurer who ran against Blagojevich for governor.
“You know, prior to this, I had a great deal of respect for Mr. Burris,” Mr. Schock said. “He served the state well.” But, he added, that the appointment not only called Mr. Blagojevich’s judgment into question, but that of Mr. Burris.
“I don’t think he should pursue it,” said the Illinois lawmaker, a former president of the Peoria Board of Education. “I’m disappointed that he is doing this.”
He added: “Most of my colleagues are not just fed up with Blagojevich, but also with Roland Burris.” This is “not the way you reinstill faith in the electorate,” he warned, adding that it helped explain why the state’s lawmakers are trying to expedite the impeachment process, with a vote in the Illinois House as soon as Jan. 15.
* Keep race out of it : This is not about race. Despite what U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush has said explicitly, and others have implied, the bid to keep Roland Burris from claiming Illinois’ vacant Senate seat is not about race. It is about denying power to a governor who has gone off the deep end. It is about ensuring a taint-free appointment for the citizens of Illinois.
* Mary Mitchell: Blinders not a good look for Burris : I believe Burris genuinely doesn’t get why anyone would think he is doing anything wrong. The fact that he doesn’t shows how badly Illinois needs change.
* Burris pick contrary to Obama message, some say: In the midst of all the political hoopla surrounding the Burris pick, his modern-day credentials had largely escaped scrutiny and raise the question of exactly why Blagojevich thinks Burris is best to carry on in Obama’s place. “It’s a great question. I don’t think anyone has taken the Burris appointment seriously enough to engage that question,” said David Morrison, assistant director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.
Ald. Tom Allen (38th) said Monday he would not be a candidate in the March 3 special primary election to succeed former U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, opening the door for City Council colleague Pat O’Connor (40th) to nail down the Democratic Party’s pivotal endorsement.
Why do I say that? Here’s one reason…
Ald. William Banks (36th) said Monday he will convene the slatemaking session in two or three weeks, giving a field that once included 22 candidates a last chance to narrow.
“Whoever has the weighted vote becomes the candidate of the party. If nobody does, it becomes an open primary,” Banks said.
Banks is likely to end up with Rep. John Fritchey, who announced his candidacy yesterday via his FaceBook page. Fritchey also has a high profile position on the impeachment committee, which is getting him a ton of earned media right now. And he’s a ward committeeman himself.
UPDATE: Ald. Banks, I’m told, is supporting O’Connor for the seat.
When developer George Ardelean came to Ald. Patrick O’Connor seeking support to build a senior housing project in the 40th Ward, he already had a long-standing business relationship with the alderman’s wife.
Barbara O’Connor had sold luxury town homes elsewhere in the city for the builder, who now wanted the alderman’s backing for the proposed nine-story, 187-unit apartment building at 6000 N. Ravenswood Ave.
Patrick O’Connor did everything in his power to promote the project, and Barbara O’Connor sold more homes for Ardelean.
Oof.
The rumors about him being a placeholder for Rahm Emanuel might not sit well with voters, either.
State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago) said Friday she has raised $300,000 in her bid to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Congress, making her the early fund-raising leader for the seat vacated when Emanuel joined the Obama White House. […]
University of Chicago economics lecturer Charlie Wheelan has announced he has raised $100,000. Former Homeland Security official Justin Oberman reports raising $140,000. Doctor Victor Forys says he has raised $160,000. County Commissioner Mike Quigley said he expects to match Feigenholtz’s numbers. Several aldermen and others are weighing a run.
Feigenholtz has to be treated as a serious contender as well.
* Bored Now takes a look at candidate websites. One caveat: Deborah Mell is out of the race.
hearing in a lawsuit that seeks to stop the state from closing a central Illinois prison has been delayed indefinitely, and the lockup could remain open for some time.
Spokesmen for the Illinois Department of Corrections and the union that represents prison workers say Monday’s hearing in Vienna was pointless.
That’s because an injunction issued in another lawsuit over the plan to close the Pontiac Correctional Center is keeping the prison open.
A federal appeals court has given the green light to red-light cameras that have pumped out more than a million Chicago tickets and generated $100 million in sorely-needed revenue since 2003.
The ruling by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals preserves one of the city’s few revenue sources not subject to the economic downturn — and clears the way for a major expansion that will install cameras at more than 330 accident-prone Chicago intersections by 2012.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger stood firm Monday on his effort to issue $740 million in bonds, saying every penny was needed to pay for big projects while maintaining services at the county’s massive public safety and health care systems.
A federal judge this afternoon authorized the release of secretly recorded conversations of Gov. Blagojevich, the first such release to the governor’s lawyers since Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest.
Chief U.S. District Judge James Holderman gave defense lawyers until 5 p.m. Wednesday to say whether they approve of redactions in the conversations recommended by prosecutors. He set a Thursday hearing to discuss whether they can be released in the interest of time for the house impeachment panel.
The disclosure comes after prosecutors requested the release of four conversations to the House panel. Prosecutors said they believed the release of the selected conversations will not impede their investigation. They said they will hand them over by noon Tuesday.
The excerpts deal with Blagojevich’s alleged efforts to secure campaign payments from a contributor — harness racing businessman Johnny Johnston — in exchange for signing a bill that directed casino revenue to horse racing.
Johnston’s lawyer, Daniel Reinberg, said his client was captured on tape but he was told he is not a subject or target of the investigation. Johnston’s family runs both Balmoral and Maywood Park race tracks. Johnston hired former Blagojevich chief of staff Lon Monk in 2007 to do lobbying on behalf of the racetracks, Reinberg said. Monk’s cell phone was tapped by authorities
The question now will be whether the House wants to wait around for those tapes or press ahead without them.
…Adding… Maybe this ruling will finally put to rest Ed Genson’s repeated claims that the tapes were made illegally. I’m not holding my breath, but he just lost a major talking point today from what I can tell.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attorney says he’ll ask a federal judge to give a legislative impeachment committee all FBI tapes of the governor’s conversations and not just the four prosecutors are offering. […]
The committee had hoped for a decision Monday. But the skirmishing means the panel could decide to make its recommendation before getting any tapes. Another court hearing on the matter is set for Thursday.
* 4:27 pm - Impeachment committee attorney David Ellis wants the tapes fast, but says they’re not “make or break”…
“Time is of the essence,” the committee’s lawyer, David Ellis, told the court today. […]
“These tapes are relevant evidence. We’d like to have them,” Ellis told reporters. Still, he added, the committee has other evidence and can move forward without the recordings. “These tapes are not make or break,” he said.
Also, the judge appeared to scold Genson for his tirades about illegal recordings…
“I have done everything in my power to make sure that the government has complied with the law,” Holderman, who authorized the original wiretaps, told attorneys for the governor and others tied to the probe.
And we’re apparently not talking about a whole lot of tape here…
The transcripts “are not very long,” Holderman replied, describing at least one as “just a matter of minutes.”
* 5:00 pm - The House has slightly altered its session and impeachment committee schedule because of today’s tapes ruling. From a Steve Brown e-mail…
In light of the federal court action today, here is an adjustment to the schedule for the week…
“If there’s a smoking gun on the tapes it would be valuable to us, but we will not wait very long for that because we want some kind of finality to this,” Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), a member of the 21-person impeachment committee, said.
Firing the first shot in Washington in the fight over the appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, Gov. Blagojevich’s acting chief of staff hand-delivered Burris’ nomination certificate to the Capitol this morning — only to see it rejected by the secretary of the Senate. […]
The secretary of the senate and two assistants acknowledged receipt of the document “but did not formally accept it” because it did not bear Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s signature, Guerrero said.
Federal prosecutors have been granted an extra three months to seek an indictment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
U.S. Chief District Court Judge James Holderman entered an order allowing the indictment deadline to be extended from Jan. 7 to April 7, according to the court docket in the Blagojevich case. Prosecutors had sought the extension last week, citing the complexity of their investigation of pay-to-play politics in the Blagojevich administration.
The other Fitzgerald motion to release some surveillance tapes will be dealt with this afternoon.
* 11:51 am - Guv sets election dates for the 5th. A March 3rd primary - which is the “real” election - is less than 2 months away. From a press release…
Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today issued a Writ of Election designating Tuesday April 7, 2009, as the date for the Special Congressional Election for the Fifth District Seat which was formerly held by Rahm Emanuel, now President-elect Barack Obama’s chief of staff. The Governor also set Tuesday, March 3, 2009, as the date for the Special Primary Election.
The two dates follow the recommendations outlined in a letter from Cook County Clerk David Orr and Lance Gough, Executive Director of the Chicago Election Board. […]
By state law, the Governor is required to set the date of a special election for a Congressional seat within five days after the vacancy is created.
By the way, Secretary of Jesse White’s signature is on the proclamation. A White spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment. I’ll let you know what he says when he says it.
* 12:04 pm - The governor’s office says that Secretary White signed the 5th CD election proclamation today. That’s an interesting development. White, you already know, refused to certify the Roland Burris appointment. Burris has taken White to court over that refusal.
Yep. Fun times.
* 12:04 pm - WGN News just Twittered that Roland Burris will hold a 12:30 pm press conference today.
* 12:26 pm - You can watch Burris’ 12:30 presser by clicking here
* 12:31 pm - It’s starting now. Burris is shaking hands of a smattering of supporters at the airport.
Burris said his “people tried to reach out” to the Obama team, but wasn’t successful.
“Race has never been a concern of mine… I have looked at the state of Illinois as the only state in the nation has elected four blacks statewide.”
Burris said he would travel to Springfield on Thursday “if we can” to testify before the House impeachment committee.
“All the drama, I guess it keeps you all in a job,” Burris said to the gathered reporters.
Burris said he has not talked to the governor lately and doesn’t intend to.
“Why should I separate myself from Rod Blagojevich?… He carried out his duties and he filled the vacancy as according to law.”
“I am the junior Senator according to every law book in the nation.”
Burris said he did not expect “this kind of theater” after his appointment was announced. He blamed Illinois’ designation as the “laughing stock of the nation” on the media.
Burris just said he’s sending an affidavit to Springfield regarding his appointment.
End.
* 12:42 pm - Secretary of State Jesse White just called. White explained what he considered to be the big difference between refusing to sign off on the Roland Burris appointment and signing off on the 5th CD special election.
The special election, White said, was essentially a perfunctory “paperwork” act. But signing off on an appointment after the governor was arrested for allegedly attempting to sell that very Senate seat is a completely different, and far more serious, matter.
[A] new state law… went into effect Thursday requiring first-time DUI offenders to install breath-monitoring devices in any vehicle they want to drive…
The equipment, called a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, or BAIID, requires a driver to blow into a tube so his or her breath can be tested. The car won’t start if the breath sample registers a .025 blood alcohol level or higher.
The device also requires samples at random intervals throughout the trip to prevent having someone else blow into the device to get the car started.
First-time DUI offenders who want to drive during the time of their statutory summary suspensions will have join the BAIID program.
Suspension times also have increased — from six months to 12 months for a driver who refuses testing when pulled over and from three months to six months for drivers who take the test and have a BAC of 0.08 or higher.
* The Question: Is this a good law? Explain fully.
Drawing criticism from Gov. Blagojevich’s lawyer, the House impeachment panel Sunday quietly fine-tuned a draft report that could be used to oust Blagojevich from office. […]
Without public notice, panel members gathered informally in Springfield on Sunday to review a 54-page draft report outlining evidence the committee likely will use as the basis for a possible impeachment vote later this week.
House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), the panel’s chairwoman, refused to describe Sunday’s gathering as a meeting or a breach of the state Open Meetings Act. Only committee members were notified of the event.
Ed Genson was not amused…
“The fact is they’re meeting without informing me of their meeting. Working on a report without informing me of a report is perfectly consistent with what they’ve been doing since this process started,” said Genson.
One panel member, state Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago), noted the swearing-in of a new General Assembly next week makes it doubtful that a Senate trial of Blagojevich would quickly follow any House vote this week. Fritchey said that if the House moves to impeach Blagojevich this week, it may be forced to redo the vote next week after its new members are sworn-in.
“Procedurally, you may have Gov. Blagojevich not only be the first governor impeached in Illinois, but be the first governor to be impeached twice within a period of a week,” Fritchey said in an interview on WGN-AM 720.
Blagojevich will be gone by early to mid-February, unless the federal courts defy expectations and get involved.
* We’ll have more on these two motions as soon as we know something…
Federal prosecutors are expected in court today, to ask a judge for more time to get an indictment of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. And there’s more. They also want the okay to share some of their evidence with state lawmakers who are considering impeaching the governor.
* Meanwhile, that bill which was supposedly designed to call a special election to fill the vacant US Senate seat and was posted for a committee hearing this week was nothing of the kind…
[Rep. John Fritchey] said his bill, SB 761, right now is intended to clean up the ethics reforms that just took effect January 1. Some language needed to be clarified so that the state wouldn’t miss out on federal highway funds. That means the legislation, as of today, is not about setting a special election to replace Obama.
The [House impeachment committee] has also issued a subpoena that was served Saturday on Roland Burris, the governor’s controversial choice to fill Illinois’ vacant U.S. Senate seat. The order compels Burris to testify Wednesday.
Burris will be in DC on Wednesday, so that may not happen. Stay tuned.
* I thought Roland Burris said he wasn’t going to make a scene?
In a raucous sendoff at a church on this city’s South Side, Roland W. Burris, the contested appointee for the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, vowing on Sunday night to cordially but aggressively fight efforts to block him from joining the chamber when he arrives in Washington this week.
“Friends, we’re going to have to have some powerful prayer. . . . They can’t deny what the Lord has ordained,'’ said Burris at New Covenant Baptist Church, 740 E. 77th, surrounded by ministers, politicians and activists.
On Sunday night, [Congressman Bobby Rush] called the Senate “one of the last bastions of plantation and racial politics in America” and said Senate Democrats who won’t seat Burris are “going to have to come and ask for forgiveness” from black Americans.
And Burris tips his strategic hand…
“I am now the junior senator from the state of Illinois. Some people, they want to doubt that. That is their right,” Burris said [last night] at a Chicago prayer service… But Burris noted the several hundred supporters in the predominantly African-American audience and said, “You are the real determining factor.” [emphasis added]
That doesn’t sound like a quiet push to me. It’s a blatant play to race.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has no plans to go to Washington, D.C., to present Roland Burris as his appointee to the U.S. Senate, a spokesman for the governor said this morning.
However, his acting chief of staff, Clayton Harris III, will leave for the nation’s capital this morning to hand deliver the certificate of appointment to the Senate, even though it doesn’t bear Secretary of State Jesse White’s signature.
Is this where the revolution has come? Has the black community become the last refuge for scalawags like Blagojevich, whose approval ratings had fallen to a miserable 13 percent in a Chicago Tribune poll even before his arrest?
As an African-American, I resent that notion, and I don’t appear to be alone. Secretary of State Jesse White, who is black, a Democrat and a friend of Rush and Burris, nevertheless has refused to certify Burris’ appointment in what White called “a moral decision,” even if it fails to hold up in court.
While Laura Washington points to popular opinion among African-Americans…
America’s most exclusive club wants to maintain its pedigree. No members appointed by crooks, please. Secretary of State Jesse White has refused to certify the Burris appointment. It’s mere paperwork, but White’s stand gives Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid priceless cover. Does White want to be seen as a water-carrier? Just turn on black talk radio WVON and listen to the callers howl.
From the soundings I took Sunday, I have a well-informed hunch that if Burris wants to get a deal done quickly, he needs to say he won’t run for the seat in 2010.
But…
When we talked Friday, Burris said he would likely run to keep the seat, and I asked him why he thought 2010 would be different.
The federal corruption probe that has shone a national spotlight on Gov. Blagojevich now has his brother — who chairs his campaign fund — increasingly under the microscope.
Law enforcement authorities, who are sifting through thousands of tape recordings in the case, have shown interest in talking with Robert Blagojevich, not only about the governor, but other aspects of the investigation, the Sun-Times has learned.
Rob’s lawyer says he’s not interested in talking to the feds…
“Would he cooperate and talk to the government?” Ettinger said. “Not a prayer.”
[Congressman Danny Davis], speaking on the phone from Chicago, said he met with Blagojevich attorney Sam Adam Jr. last Wednesday morning. The two met in Davis’ Chicago office. Davis said he was told “the governor would like to appoint me to the vacant spot.” After Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9, Davis, who sought the appointment from him when he thought Blagojevich was playing it straight, said he would not take the job if offered.
But that report may have been in error. Here’s the NY Times’ version…
Representative Davis met with Sam Adam Sr., a well-known criminal defense lawyer here whose son has represented Mr. Blagojevich during the impeachment hearings in Springfield, in Mr. Davis’s Chicago office. [emphasis added]
Launching a spring ethics push, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn has asked the same lawyer who prosecuted former Gov. George Ryan to recommend ways to “fumigate” state government.
Quinn Monday will name former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins to chair a panel to draw up legislation and other reforms to respond to the litany of alleged wrongdoing tied to Gov. Blagojevich.
As sleazy allegation after sleazy allegation came to light during Blagojevich’s first term, Pat Quinn kept his mouth shut.
Quinn has tried to burnish an image as an “elder statesman” by attending the funerals of Illinois soldiers and Marines killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He saluted as “Taps” was played and the cameras clicked funeral after funeral. But we didn’t hear boo from him as vets were shunted aside when seeking state jobs.
The administration gamed the state’s hiring system to give preference to political cronies over veterans. Middle-aged folks were hired into lucrative so-called “intern” positions to avoid the legal requirement of giving preference to veterans.
* And the goo-goos are upset about an upcoming fundraiser by the Senate Democrats, even though there’s no evidence that anything is amiss…
David Morrison, deputy director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which helped push through the new anti-pay-to-play legislation, said he was surprised when told of the amounts of money being asked for in the Cullerton letter.
“Thirty-five grand is a lot of money for one event,” Morrison said. “At that point,” he added, admitting it was somewhat of an exaggeration, “you’re almost bumping up against average household income.”
But Cullerton told me there’s a big difference between regular fundraising and illegal activity in which Blagojevich is alleged to have participated.
Exactly. Not all contributions are tainted. Most aren’t, in fact.
More people are moving out of Illinois than into the state, according to figures from two large shipping companies.
Of the 18,084 interstate moves involving Illinois handled in the first 11 months of 2008 by United Van Lines and Atlas Van Lines, 56 percent were outbound and 44 percent were moving in.
Illinois was among a group of Midwestern states that saw more moving trucks leaving than entering.
The city’s finance chief delivered bad news for the new year: The city’s 2008 budget crisis was even worse than predicted.
City revenues last year were $31 million lower than projected in the fall, Paul Volpe, the city’s chief financial officer, said Friday.
“I don’t expect things to get better in [2009], frankly,” Volpe told reporters at City Hall. “Everybody seems to think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
Volpe said the city will rely on “creative management,” rather than layoffs or tax increases, to make do in these trying economic times.
A big drop in real estate transfer taxes in 2008 accounts for much of the shortfall, as well as decreases in income and sales taxes, Volpe said.
The bad news is Chicago received much less than expected income from taxes and fines in 2008. But Chief Financial Officer Paul Volpe says there is some good news. Volpe says the city could save nearly $22 million in 2009 by lower fuel prices the city’s locked-in. He says residents won’t see taxes go up or services cut.
All my life I’ve been a workin’ man
On Chicago’s Northwest Side
Livin’ check to check, never gettin’ ahead
No matter how hard I tried
I had an old friend from the neighborhood
He grew up to do just fine
He couldn’t read or write to save his life
But I guess his boss didn’t mind
Now, I never quite knew what my old friend did
To get that money rollin’ in
But life, I guess, can be pretty good
For a state committeeman
So, one night over beer at the local bar
I said, “How’d you make your dough?”
My friend just grinned a wicked grin
And said “Here’s all you need to know”
CHORUS
You’ve got to pay-to-play in this town
If you wanna make that deal go down
It’s who you know inside the Big Machine
Just find the man that’s behind the man
And put some money in his hand
That’s how we try to keep our city green
VERSE
Well, the liquor flowed and the stories flew
And my old friend bared his soul
About rigging bids and getting neighbor kids
Good jobs on a ghost payroll
He said he’d be happy to help me out
If there was anything he could do
Like try to arrange a zoning change
Or put me on a movie crew
Well, we talked and talked until last call
And then I told him I was beat
Then he climbed aboard his hired truck
To see a man about a Senate seat
And late that night as I lay in bed
You know I finally figured it out
My friend didn’t need to read or write
Cause he had himself some clout
CHORUS
You’ve got to pay-to-play in this town
If you wanna make that deal go down
It’s who you know inside the Big Machine
Just find the man that’s behind the man
And put some money in his hand
That’s how we try to keep our city green
CHORUS
You’ve got to pay-to-play in this town
If you wanna make that deal go down
It’s who you know inside the Big Machine
If you wanna standout
You gotta know who gets the handout
That’s how we try to keep our city green
It’s a daily job to keep our city green
